Sweet Dreams
by Parasite X12
Summary: While staring up at the clouds and about to drift off to sleep an orange clad blonde girl interrupts Shikamaru's peace. But it seems that Shikamaru discovers a side to the Hyperactive Knucklehead that he never expected to see. Naruko X Shikamaru
1. Chapter 1

Sweet Dreams

Naruko X Shikamaru One-Shot

No matter how troublesome life got for Shikamaru Nara, whether Ino was nagging his ear off or Chouji was whining about how hungry he was, when Shikamaru made the time to relax beneath a shady tree and watch the clouds float by.

It was a simple past time that Shikamaru shared with nobody but himself. Though he would often peg it down to either nobody simply having the patience or the desire to find value in the simple act of lying down and watching the world go by. After all, it was people like Ino who told him that he was wasting his life by doing nothing with himself and Asuma-Sensei often wishing that he would put in the effort to push himself to his limits given the potential the Nara boy had to become an excellent shinobi.

But as always putting in more effort than what was required was such a drag. Shikamaru didn't understand why people even bothered pushing themselves to do things. Maybe it was a motivational thing that he didn't understand or perhaps it was simply a case of two different people who's mind operated on a different plain of existence to one another.

Shaking his head at the thought Shikamaru dispelled the idea that an alternate universe version of himself would be so energetic, hyperactive or driven to push himself beyond his limits. Like Naruko for example. Now that was a scary thought, Shikamaru running around in an orange jumpsuit shouting believe it while guzzling down Ramen as if it was the air he breathed.

The sweet embrace of sleep began to take hold of the Nara boy as he felt a wave of tiredness overcome him.

"Maybe I can kill a couple of hours without having to do anymore work today" Shikamaru yawned as he began drifting off to sleep.

"SHIKA WAKE UP!" shouted a loud obnoxious female voice from right above him.

Grumbling as somebody snapped him out of his sleep the lazy boy opened his eyes to see a blonde haired girl with whisker marks on her cheeks, wearing an orange and blue jumpsuit with a cheeky grin on her face, upside down to the view.

 **"(Uh oh… that can't be good)"** Shikamaru thought as he recalled the times that Naruko grinned like that only when she was pulling a prank on somebody.

"What do you want Naruko?" Shikamaru queried sounding slightly annoyed that somebody had awakened him from one of his favourite past times.

"I wanna do something fun" Naruko answered cheerfully as she moved around to face Shikamaru right side up in his perspective.

"No" Shikamaru answered bluntly in his usual deadpanned voice.

"Aww, but Shika I'm bored" Naruko whined, putting on a mock pout.

"I don't care" Shikamaru replied before closing his eyes again only to open them again to see Naruko fuming with her fists on her hips

"Why not?" Naruko asked unable to fathom why Shikamaru didn't wanna do fun stuff like her

"Because doing something 'fun' as you call it would require me to get up, and that would be too troublesome" Shikamaru answered hoping that Naruko would go away and annoy somebody else.

"Stop being so lazy Shika and do something fun" Naruko fumed, demanding that the boy get off his lazy ass before she grabbed his hand and tried pulling him up only for the Nara boy to resist her tugging.

"Come on Shika" Naruko grunted trying to pull him up.

"No I'm pretty comfortable down here" Shikamaru replied lazily while in this little game of tug of war with the blonde girl.

"Grrr lazy Nara" growled Naruko getting tired of Shikamaru's resistance to her attempts at making him have fun. "Troublesome girl" sighed the Nara boy prepared to just give up given how much effort was being put in here.  
Releasing her grip from his hand Naruko huffed out of exhaustion over the pointless struggle.

"YA KNOW WHAT, FINE! How about I just lie down here with YOU ya lazy Nara" Naruko snapped throwing her arms up in the air out of frustration before sitting down briskly whilst pouting with her arms folded.

"Fine by me" Shikamaru remarked with a small grin on hi face that this time he was actually allowed to kick back and relax whereas Ino would have dragged him away whether he liked it or not. The Nara boy supposed that he could give Naruko credit for not dragging him off.

Barely five minutes passed before Naruko started fidgeting nervously.

"Something up?" Shikamaru asked surprised at how Konoha's hyperactive knucklehead could remain so silent for so long.

Naruko mumbled something so incoherent causing Shikamaru to raise an eyebrow in curiosity

"What?" Shikamaru asked not catching what Naruko was saying.

"I don't like silence" Naruko whispered silently, still inaudible to the lazy boy.

"Geez the one time I want you to talk and you're almost dead silent" Shikamaru remarked in his usual deadpan voice though internally worried that something was wrong.

"I HATE SILENCE OKAY! There I fucking said it!" Naruto shouted angrily shocking Shikamaru enough to get a visible reaction of surprise and concern.

A brief pause came between the two as Naruko uncharacteristically hid her face from Shikamaru's view either out of embarrassment or because there was something that she didn't want Shikamaru to see.

"Why?" Shikamaru queried this time no longer deadpan in tone, conveying concern if someone as cheery as Naruko was sedate-phobic.

"…" Naruko remained tight lipped, still not facing the lazy boy

"Troublesome… How am I supposed to help you if you don't tell me what's going on" Shikamaru spoke frustrated and really unsure of how to handle these kinds of situations.

Naruko quietly murmured something beneath her breath with her obscured face all while Shikamaru sighed as he decided to go for a different approach.

"Look, I'm not good at dealing with stuff like this, I'll admit that but if you want me to help you out with this then I need to know what you're dealing with okay?" Shikamaru said, proposing something that would allow the normally hyperactive knucklehead to speak freely about her fear.

Naruko seemed to agree with this as she nodded her head.

"So tell me, why do you fear silence of all things?" Shikamaru asked in a neutral tone whilst taking the role of pseudo psychologist.

"I… I hate feeling so alone" Naruko spoke softly and melancholically

"And what makes you say you're alone? You have your Team don't you? Sasuke, Sakura? What about them?" Shikamaru asked delving deeper into Naruko's mind.

"Like the Teme or his fangirl would care, Sasuke's driven by killing his brother and Sakura's looking to get into Sasuke's pants. The only thing they have in common is that they hate me" Naruko explained expressing her frustrations of her own teammates.

"And your Sensei?" queried the Nara boy, surely the scarecrow looking pervert would've taken a degree of care into his students? After all if Gai, Kurenai and Asuma-sensei fairly treated their students with as much respect then certainly Kakashi would've been no different.

"The only thing Bakashi-Sensei cares about is reading porn and on the occasion training Sasuke" Naruko stated angrily, resentful that her sensei only ever taught her tree walking and almost nothing else compared to the time he spent teaching Sasuke cool Jutsus and fighting moves.

"You don't sound scared as much as you do angry at these people" Shikamaru remarked as he saw a side of Naruko that he thought wasn't nearly as bitter as she appeared otherwise.

"Don't you get it? I'm not on the same wavelength as my team, MY FUCKING TEAM! They're the guys who I'm suppose to trust, but they don't trust me, hell to them I'm dead weight" Naruko explained, snapping a reply to Shikamaru's observation becoming painfully obvious to the Nara boy that Naruko though not the sharpest tool in the shed was smart enough to be self aware at her own mortality.

"Look I'm not stupid like everyone says I am, or at least I'm not stupid enough to not know when I'm the weakest link of my team" Naruko sighed, adding on to her rant through a melancholic tone to her voice.

"But I'm always stuck being the dead last because nobody wants to teach me because I'm the nine t-" Naruko squeaked as she clasped her hands over her mouth upon almost letting out her secret out when she was told not to by Old Man Hokage.

"The Nine Tailed Fox?" Shikamaru stated getting a gasp out of the blonde Jinchuuriki.

"H-how did you know?" Naruko asked bearing a fearful expression on her face, worried that the lazy boy would hate her just as much as the villagers did.

"To be perfectly honest with you… I didn't, I just guessed. Although now that you mention it, that only makes too much sense" Shikmaru answered finally deciding to sit up and face the fox girl as he was about to tell her how he figured it all out.

"When we were all first indoctrinated into the academy my father told me that no matter what anyone else said that I bear no malice towards you" Shikamaru began. "A strange thing to point out considering that I was going to the academy to become a Shinobi, but whether subconsciously or I just picked it up over the years I began to notice that most of our Sensei's wouldn't bother helping you when you asked" continued the Nara boy as he took a deep breath before he continued his explanation. "But what really put the pieces together for me is how you managed to become a Genin even though you failed the Academy Exams. Normally you would have to undergo another year at the Academy to even think about passing the Genin exam again, but instead you passed…" Shikamaru explained to an anxious Naruko worrying about Shikamaru's opinion of her now that her secret was out.

"Maybe it was because it was too troublesome to think about back then but now I'm dead certain that after how everybody looks at you as if you killed their relatives that you would've been related to a certain major incident" Shikamaru continued before coming to the conclusion of his summary.

"From there all I did was remember that you were born on October 10th and from there I could only assume that you were the one chosen by the Fourth Hokage to be a sacrifice" Shikamaru concluded taking a large breath, afterwards muttering how talking for so long was troublesome. "Besides, the whiskers are a dead giveaway" added the Nara boy before another pause of silence took the two.

Neither of the two knew what to say to each other afterwards, one fearing that the other would abandon her and the other unknowing of how she would react considering that nobody but a select few from what he could gather knew about the fox girl's secret.

Seeing Naruko fidget anxiously again was what made Shikamaru decide to make the first move.

"Look if you're worried about me telling anyone don't worry, I don't feel the need nor the patience to indulge anyone on your secret" Shikamaru spoke reassuringly.

"But tell me why you're fear dead silence?" Shikamaru queried now getting to the bottom of her fears.

"Because I'm always alone…" Naruko answered.

"I don't care if people hate me, want me dead or anything but at least I know that they acknowledge my existence. But when people treat me like I don't even exist… I can't handle that" Naruko explained with her voice absolutely devoid of any joy or happiness.

"I hate silence because it's only when it's quiet that I have to listen to my thoughts… I know you think I'm dumb but when I stop for just a second and think about what I'm doing without any noise I think about what a loser I am and how maybe the others are better than I am" Naruko continued only for the Nara boy to raise an eyebrow.

"And what happened to the knucklehead who says that she'll never give up?" Shikamaru remarked only for a dark chuckle in return somewhat frightening the lazy boy.

"What, you actually believe someone who's ignored and shunned by everyone she knows can keep up that act for 12 fucking years? This isn't a Shounen Anime Shika… this is the life I live, and for my entire life I've been alone" Naruko spoke sounding far removed from the fear and the anxiety she displayed previously.

"Then tell me why you feel alone?" Shikamaru asked picking his questions carefully considering the sudden dark shift in character.

"Because even in a crowded room full of people I still feel alone… and somehow I think even becoming Hokage won't change that" Naruko replied settling down back into the melancholic mood she was in before.

And that was when it hit him.

"I get it" Shikamaru remarked with a small grin finally knowing how to help her.

"No, you really don't" Naruko replied bitterly

"You say you feel alone because people ignore you or because they hate you for being a vessel for the Nine Tailed Fox. But I don't think that's why you feel alone" Shikamaru began only for a pair of skeptical eyes to peer into him.

"Well then Mr psychologist, what's your diagnosis" Naruko sardonically remarked rolling her eyes.

"I think you only feel alone because nobody else has bothered to take the time to understand you on a more personal level" Shikamaru stated which caught the attention of the fox girl as she held a look of guilty introspection as she felt she had been a little too harsh on the boy who was trying to help her.

"Far be it from me to say this but I don't think anyone else has ever seen you like this right?" Shikamaru asked as Naruko pooled back into her memories recalling that not even in front of Old Man Hokage or Iruka-sensei did she ever tell them how alone she truly was despite of how they did care for her.

"No" Naruko answered simply.

"I'll tell you what Naruko, lie down next to me" Shikamaru suggested with a smile on his face causing the blonde to tilt her head in confusion as to what the lazy boy was doing. "Huh? What for?" Naruko queried as her usual loud tone of voice returned to her. Something which Shikamaru took as a sign of her feeling better.

"I wanna show you something" Shikamaru replied as Naruko did as he said, carefully lying down beside him placing her arms behind her head.

"I don't get it? What am I supposed to be seeing?" Naruko asked dumbfounded by the fact that all she could see was just clouds floating on by in the sky.

"Just take a deep breath and relax. You'll see what I mean" Shikamaru answered as Naruko complied with his instructions. Inhaling the fresh air Naruko exhaled as she usually would only this time to find a strange feeling overcome her. One that she could say she hadn't felt in such a long time.

Peace.

The feeling of complete and total serenity was astounding. It was an emotion of security and warmth that resonated with Naruko to such a degree that she never felt those negative thoughts penetrating her psyche. A contented smile spread across Naruko's face as not once did she think about her curse as the Jinchuuriki, never did her bastard Team enter her mind, and no longer did the village's hatred for her matter. She was at peace with not only herself, but with what and who she was with at this moment.

"I think I can see why you love this so much Shika" Naruko spoke in a cheerful yet calm tone as her ears picked up a light snore coming from beside her which prompted the fox girl to turn to her left side to see Shikamaru's eyes closed with his chest rising and descending slowly as he breathed.

 **"(He fell asleep)"** Naruko thought still smiling that even for all his efforts in the time that she spent with him today he was still the same old sleepy Shikamaru.

"Lazy Nara" Naruko remarked as she decided to follow the Nara boy into the land of dreams, snuggling up beside him and cuddling his upper body, leaning into his ear.

"I'm not alone anymore Shika" Naruko whispered before kissing his cheek and falling asleep next to the Nara boy unknowing that he was awake the entire time.

"Sweet dreams Naruko" Shikamaru whispered planting a kiss on her cheek as well.

 **A/N: *sigh* I'm such a sap for fluffy romances… But man my mood was all over the place when making this going from KAWAII to depressed to psychotic ETC… Although I think that's why I think this came out as well as it did.**

 **But in any case I made this because I ship Naruko X Shikamaru and anyone else who loves it can now have a little something sweet to read and I'm glad I could add my own little something to this pairing.**


	2. Naruko gets a cold

Naruko X Shikamaru One Shot

Naruko vs Shikamaru and the Yucky Cold Medicine.

"Oh god… Why me?" Shikamaru asked, deadpan in expression, his tone serving to only further reflect his current situation which was undoubtably more troublesome than any he had ever faced before.

"Shika… I'm sick ***Cough* *Cough*** ack…" Naruko called, her voice gravelly in tone and coughing up a lung, surrounded by snot filled tissues and empty ramen cups as she laid on her couch beneath the warm embrace of her blankets, tucked inside. Shikamaru would've thought she looked cute if she wasn't coughing like a chainsmoker.

Sighing heavily Shikamaru knew he was in for hell given that the boyfriend of Konoha's number 1 Unpredictable Ninja would be forced to take care of her. He heard horror stories from Team 7 about the last time Naruko had a cold.

Things harsher than anything Kakashi experienced during the Third Shinobi World War, more traumatising than what Sasuke felt during the Uchiha Massacre, and twice as annoying as Sakura had ever seen from the loudmouthed blonde.

And after finding out about Naruko and Shikamaru's budding relationship, they had finally felt a relief from the burden of taking care of a sick Naruko, finally somebody else who would suffer the pain… FOREVER!

"What a drag" muttered the Nara, before approaching the coughing Blonde, her nose running as she sniffed giving Shikamaru the audible pleasure of listening to snot burble causing him to grimace at the sight of the illness that had befallen his girlfriend.

"M' Hungee" Naruko whined, indicative of her desire to eat Ramen.

"Naruko you're not gonna get better by just eating Ramen, you need to take some medicine" Shikamaru replied only to have Naruko's eyes widen in shock, knowing full well the bane of her existence whenever she had a cold.

"No way! That medicine is disgusting" Naruko protested, hiding beneath the blankets of her couch, worried that Shikamaru was going to force-feed her the 'yucky medicine' as she called it so many years ago when Old Man Hokage used to take care of her as a young child.

"Then how are you gonna get better?" Shikamaru asked, hoping to convince Naruko to make this as easy as possible on the both of them. He didn't want to be forced into making her take the medicine until she left him no other choice.

"I dunno I just will" argued the Nine Tailed Jinchuuriki coughing once more and grumbling to herself.

"Stupid fox, can heal injuries just fine but a cold? _Ooooh No, he couldn't possibly heal that_!" muttered Naruko, angrily clenching her fists at how the Nine Tailed Fox seemed to be amused by how his current host and her mate were suffering by his refusal to cure her ailment.

"I'm willing to be he's probably laughing at us right now" Shikamaru commented.

Naruko nodded in affirmation as the distant yet bellowing roars of laughter were made clear to Naruko considering the Tailed Beast she held inside her.

"Look it doesn't change the fact that you need to take your medicine Naruko. Come on, it'll make you feel better" Shikamaru stated only to get a cold glare from the blonde.

"No" Naruko replied bitterly.

"Naruko" Shikamaru spoke, his tone becoming insistent on having his girlfriend take the medicine.

"No!" Naruko answered childishly, pouting as she adamantly refused to take her medicine.

"Naruko you're about to leave me no other choice either you take the medicine or I'm gonna shove it down your throat and by Kami you're gonna like it" Shikamaru growled, taking out a bottle containing the liquid who's label read 'cold medicine.'

"Make me!" Naruko retorted, poking her tongue out before coughing again.

"THAT'S IT!" exclaimed the Nara, no longer standing for Naruko's childish games. Leaping towards the blonde, Naruko intercepted Shikamaru's arms, stopping her boyfriend from giving her the yucky medicine.

"Stop being so troublesome Naruko-baka I'm just trying to help you" Shikamaru argued, wrestling for dominance over his girlfriend.

"Like hell you are! I don't want the yucky medicine Shika, and I'm not gonna let you take me without a fight!" Naruko snapped, looking for an opportunity to escape from the EVIL clutches of her boyfriend trying to help her get better.

… Okay maybe she was being irrational but the Yucky Medicine was REALLY yucky in her defence.

"YAAH!" Naruko cried as she kicked Shikamaru off her couch before scrambling away with Shikamaru giving chase around her apartment. The two lovers were caught around a kitchen table, Shikamaru on one side and Naruko on the other, each one trying to give the other the slip by switching between table ends in an attempt to fool the other and misdirect them into a false lead on which way they were running.

"Give up Naruko or I'm gonna make you swallow the whole bottle" Shikamaru threatened, seemingly determined to ensure that Naruko is never sick for a LONG time with such a large dosage of Cold Medicine causing the Uzumaki girl to gasp.

"You WOULDN'T!" Naruko replied, equally determined to escape her boyfriend and the yucky medicine.

"Try me" Shikamaru replied, glaring down at Naruko Uzumaki before jumping over the table in his attempt to pin his girlfriend down and give her what she needed to get better.

Being quick on her feet Naruko ran towards her bathroom, quickly formulating a plan to get Shikamaru to stop following her by means of a man's one weakness.

 **"SEXY JUTSU!"** Naruko announced as she performed the Henge that normally transformed her into an older and nude version of herself, all on display for her boyfriends viewing pleasure.

Unfortunately for Shikamaru however he was horrified at the results of Naruko's jutsu.

"Kiss me Shika-kun" cooed a grizzled, almost male sounding voice as Shikamaru felt like letting out a high pitched scream upon the sights and sounds he heard before him.

The Sexy Jutsu had worked as it usually did, however Naruko instead of looking like an attractive young woman instead had her fleshed looking gangrenous and rotten, her eyes and nose bleeding and her long blonde hair draped over her face, looking like something out of a horror movie Shikamaru had once seen called 'The Circle'.

"I want you Shika-kun… make love to me!" cooed the zombie looking Naruko, teasing Shikamaru as her hand travelled across her rotting body as if to provoke Shikamaru to faint due to blood loss from the nose bleed.

Knowing that it was do or die time Shikamaru mustered up all the courage he had and opted to tackle this problem head on. Pumping chakra into his feet Shikamaru dashed towards Naruko at great speeds, knocking her over and out of her 'Dead-Sexy Jutsu' as he nicknamed it and unscrewed the cap of the bottle of Cold Medicine before pinning down his girlfriend.

"NOOOOOOOO!" Naruko screamed, desperately struggling to escape from her boyfriend, but to no avail as she couldn't move.

"Shika-kun please don't do it, I- ***GULP*** " It was all over for her, Naruko was forced to swallow her Cold Medicine. shortly removing the medicine bottle from her mouth Naruko coughed and sputtered before poking her tongue out due to the bitter liquid she was forced to taste.

"Eww yuck!" Naruko whined, desperately wanting to get rid of the taste that was left in her mouth by the dreaded Cold Medicine.

Shikamaru released Naruko from his grip as he laid against her bathroom wall, tired out after the chase she put him on, panting and feeling a the heat on his forehead as he wiped away the sweat.

"There… Maybe now you'll ***COUGH* *COUGH*** " Shikamaru hacked, feeling some phlegm build up in his chest.

"Shika are you okay?" Naruko asked concerned for her boyfriend before feeling his temperature which as it turned out was quite warm.

Slyly grinning her foxy grin, Shikamaru gulped as the dreadful reality of his situation finally began to sink in as he realised that he was about to get a taste of his own medicine… Quite literally.

"Oh shit" remarked Shikamaru, knowing that he was probably going to suffer as Naruko had before him.

"REVENGE!" Naruko exclaimed as she yanked the Cold Medicine from her boyfriend's hands and decided to have some fun returning the favour to her 'Dr Shikamaru.'

 **Two Days later**

Sasuke Uchiha was in hell, literally.

There was his brother killing the clan, and then there was this, hell in its purest form, nothing could've ever prepared him for this, no amount of training or studying could save him now, he knew it was over but lamented the fact that it had to end this way as Team 7 was about to embark on their toughest mission yet.

Likewise Sakura Haruno couldn't escape. She tried to run, but was dragged back into the fold, if her team was going to suffer, she would suffer with them. It was the first time she ever saw strong emotion from her usually aloof sensei and her crush Sasuke.

This was true fear, the likes of which she hadn't felt since Zabuza during the land of the waves mission.

But even that was a more merciful fate than what she was about to undertake.

And finally Kakashi Hatake had the look of a man who knew that the worst was coming and wanted to die.

Why him, why was it that he was forced to do such a thankless and horrific task. He could've been at home reading Icha Icha Paradise, or better yet doing anything other than this, Buying Dango for Anko, reliving the painful memories of Obito's death, hell even sparring with Might Gai would've been preferable to the pain and torment the Copy Ninja was about to face.

And yet the three members of Team 7 shivered as they heard two sickly voices call out in unison.

"KAKASHI-SENSEI, WE'RE SICK!"

 **A/N: A story I just decided to write out of the blue because right now, much like Naruko I AM SICK AND IT FUCKING SUCKS!**

 **Seriously, I hate being sick because your body is all like**

 **"ya know what fuck you humans, you're all fleshy and spongy with your organs and shit, so ya know what FUCK YOU I'm just gonna let you get infected with shitty viruses, yep that's what we do, because we're fucking viruses. Make you get all sick and stuff"**

 **GRRRRRRR *COUGH* *COUGH* *HACK* *WHEEZE* … Lyn sad :'(**

 **Seriously though I hope you guys enjoyed this story because I love the Naruko X Shikamaru pairing so much and to give it more love makes me happy :D**

 **So here ya go, I'd recommend reading this if you're feeling sick because hopefully in some small way it'll help make you feel better.**


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